In the production of packaging containers for beverages, use is occasionally made of prefabricated, possibly sterilized, packaging container blanks produced from a packaging laminate of paper, thermoplastic and possibly aluminium foil, and also provided with some form of opening arrangement. One such packaging container, as well as a machine for producing the packaging containers (i.e. filling and final forming of the blanks) is described in Swedish Patent No. 9400506-3, to which reference is now made for further information. The prefabricated blanks are thus delivered in the flat-laid state, i.e. the packaging container blanks are flat-laid so that opposing walls abut against one another and the blanks will be substantially two-dimensional. In those cases when the blanks are provided with a projecting portion, for example an opening arrangement or an arrangement for both filling and pouring of the liquid contents of the packaging container, closely packed stacking of the flat-laid blanks is prevented, since the projecting portion imparts to the blanks a third dimension and creates spaces between the blanks when they are stacked on one another. Such stacking thus fails to give symmetric, straight stacks, but instead stacks which tilt or slope to a greater or lesser extent. Stacking which causes abutment pressure on the projecting portions may also readily result in damage to them or to the blanks themselves, so that filling of the packaging container blanks or emptying of their contents is either prevented or impeded. In symmetric placing of the projecting portions, nor can the blanks be turned to face one another, since, also in these positions, the projecting portions will be located in register with one another. Stacking of this type of blanks in a multipack casing thus creates, on the one hand, an asymmetric stacking pattern (which necessitates the employment of oblique or asymmetric multipacks) and/or large spaces which are unused and "air filled". In addition, there is the risk that concentrated point loading on the edges of the blanks or on the projecting portions will cause damage to them so that the opening and/or filling function is jeopardised.
There is thus a general need in the art to provide a multipack or group package for this type of flat-laid packaging container blank provided with projecting opening arrangements, the multipack making it possible to stack the blanks in a compressed and space-saving manner adjacent one another at the same time as the risk of damage to the opening arrangements of the blanks proper is reduced to a minimum.